Skip to main content

Long read: How TikTok's most intriguing geolocator makes a story out of a game

Where in the world is Josemonkey?

If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

Why BioShock Vita was announced before development had started

Levine: "Sony has been such a good partner to us."

Last June, Irrational Games boss Ken Levine climbed on stage during Sony's E3 presentation to reveal that his BioShock franchise is coming to Vita.

With precious little information released on the game since, last week Eurogamer asked Levine why he announced the project before development had even begun. The answer? Because he wanted to help Sony out.

"Look, generally when I announce something... like with BioShock Infinite we had a whole video to show and it was all fully-formed," he explained.

"[With the Vita announcement], it was part of something else obviously. Sony was launching this platform and it was important that they had a show of support from people no matter what stage of development they were at.

"Sony has been such a good partner to us, and I'm not just blowing smoke," he continued.

"Not just on a professional level, but on a personal level they've been really good to us. Every time we see them they take really good care of us. So they asked me to do that and I said okay, even though that's not what I normally do.

"And I tried not to oversell it when I went out there. I just said 'we're doing this'. I didn't want to present something that I didn't have a lot of clarity on at that point."

When asked for some idea of what direction the game is heading in, Levine called for patience.

"I'm not ready to talk about it until I have something to show you," he said.

Still, fans of the franchise have plenty to look forward to in the short term - BioShock Infinite is due out this October, complete with PlayStation Move support. See below for a brand new trailer.

Read this next